


Perfectly Obliterated

by HolleringHawk65



Series: The Batman They Got [9]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman Beyond, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Batman! Jason, Gen, Robin! Terry, bruce and tony are friends, kind of lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-05
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2018-11-23 14:46:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11404620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HolleringHawk65/pseuds/HolleringHawk65
Summary: Where there's a Batman, there's usually a little bird in tow. Except this time, Robin isn't so little.





	Perfectly Obliterated

**Author's Note:**

> Guys!!! I actually have motivation to write AND ideas for this series, it's so lit. I plan to get the next story up soon (hopefully the next day or two) and have more marvel characters in it! 
> 
> Let me know if there's anything you wanna see and I can try to make it happen ;-)

Jason woke up to cold water being splashed on his face. Well, it was more like cold water was dumped on his face, but that was just semantics. His whole body jerked at the feeling of it. He instantly lashed out, earning an annoyed sigh from whoever was there.

It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, not to mention that he needed to wipe water from them. He sat up in stark confusion, not sure what to do, because… He had no fucking idea who this kid was.

“Look, if you’re trying to rob me, you’re wasting your time, because as you can see, my apartment’s pretty bare.”

The kid--because he’s kind of a kid, but maybe a little older than Peter, and younger than himself--just kind of leans against a wall. “Yeah, sure. That’s exactly why I woke _here_ , in a Robin costume.” Suddenly, the one light that Jason uses for reading got flipped on, making him blink his eyes and groan again. The light did, however, reveal that the kid wasn’t joking; he really was in a good, old fashioned Robin suit, like the ones he and Dick used to wear.

What the kid had said really hit him though. He _knew_ what, who, Robin was. What the hell? “What are you talking about? I’ve never seen you before in my life.”

He snorted. “Okay, sure. Look, I don’t know where you’ve taken me, considering that skyline is not the Gotham I know-”

Jason bolted up in bed. “Wait, so you’re from a Gotham that has Robin? And Batman?”

The kid stared at him like he’d gone insane. “The freaks in costumes kind of what makes Gotham Gotham.” The way he said it sounded kind of practiced, in the way that it was a line he might have rehearsed but never actually said out loud before; he grimaced after the words left his mouth.

He could have laughed out of relief as he fumbled around for the tv remote. Surely, he could prove that this was Gotham with a news station. And maybe, maybe this kid could help him make sense of the whole ‘randomly appear in another universe’ thing. “There we go,” he muttered as the tv flickered to life. “Gotham City, in all of its dark and gritty glory.”

The kid went rigid next to him. “Twenty years younger than I know it.”

_Oh fuck._

\---

The kid’s name is Terry McGinnis. He doesn’t remember anything unusual happening before waking up in Jason’s apartment, which falls in line with what happened to Jason himself--he just woke up with a new life as Batman, instead of the Red Hood, and it happened to include not only a new social security number, but bank accounts, an odd job history, a job at the coffee shop next to the Wayne Enterprises building.

For Terry, it seems like a total downgrade; twenty years in the last, Robin instead of Batman; the Justice League doesn’t exist in any form here, but he knows the Avengers from comic books and movies at least. But what gets Jason the most is that Terry doesn’t know _him_. Jason Peter Todd, by all accounts the second Robin and bonafide pain in the ass, doesn’t exist in Terry’s neat, little universe, where Bruce more or less hung up the cowl and Babs is the police commissioner.

By the time they figure everything out that they need to know, it’s nearly dawn. Terry looked exhausted as he tugged down the green shorts and sighed. They found a backpack filled with everything that Terry would need to start a new life, just like Jason, and it’s honestly kind of terrifying. What force was dragging them from their homes and their loved ones, just to bring them here?

“At least two heads will be better than one,” Jason says to Terry. “We’ll figure this out, alright? My… family is already figuring out a way to get me back to my universe, I’m sure we can figure it out for you, too.”

Terry takes in a deep breath and it almost sounds like he’s about to start to cry, and Jason isn’t sure that he’d blame him. He knows that it’s a lot to take in. He gets up to get Terry a pair of sweatpants to change into because he remembers how uncomfortable the uniform was when he was fifteen, he can’t imagine it’s much more comfortable as a nearly twenty year old who has a body built for a Batman suit.

When Jason handed him the pants, Terry just looked at him and then down at himself. “I don’t think that I can get this costume off.”

It’s kind of pitiful, in a way, but Jason feels for him. He sets down the pants and starts undoing all of the latches; nothing as fancy as Tim and Damian’s suits, but weird if you’ve never had to do it before. “And there we go,” he says as he tugs it down a bit for good measure.

“Thanks.” Totally unashamed, Terry takes off the rest of the suit. And there was nothing underneath. The skin that’s revealed is, just wow. He has a lot of scars; quite a few looked like faded burns, too many of them to be birthmarks. Terry must have noticed. “My Batsuit has a lot of wiring in it, and sometimes the padding isn’t enough to stop any damaged parts from burning me.”

“Oh,” was the best that Jason could think of without saying something like, _“oh, yeah I know all about scars, because I had a Robin suit that sucked and then I died in a building that exploded”_ and sounding like he was playing a game of “my life is worse than yours, clearly.”

Jason had to take a breath when Terry was done changing and was just standing there. In the pre-dawn light as the moon gave one last hurrah, he looked beautiful. He shook his head, putting the thought to rest.

\---

At some point, they had both fallen asleep on the mattress, of only to catch an hour or two of sleep. Terry, maybe because he was universally jet-lagged, slept right through Jason’s alarm.

Jason takes a few moments just to take in Terry and yeah, he can see how this kid could be Batman. Doesn’t mean that he _should_ be Batman, not that being Robin is much better. Who knows, maybe he can dissuade him from taking up Robin and the kid can just relax for a while.

Instead of getting Terry up, he quickly got ready and then started getting a breakfast together before going back over to the mattress. He took the approach that he would with Dick or Roy, slowly shaking him awake. When Terry’s eyes opened, he smiled. “Got some eggs and sausage ready for you, and then you can get ready for work.”

Last night, they had found a copy of this week’s schedule for the coffee shop, and, sure enough, Terry was working the same shifts as Jason.

If Jason was being honest, he’d say that Terry’s pretty face would definitely increase the popularity of the café.

\---

Tim’s stomach growled so loud that he was kind of embarrassed, especially since he was in his usual coffee shop that was unusually busy. He thought about wheeling over to the counter and asking for a pastry, but then he stopped himself. The line was way too long already and he just didn’t want to take up the space.

But, his silent prayers were answered--as well as one of his fears--a few moments later when two plates with pastry and coffee were placed on his table, causing his stomach to growl again before the man who brought them spoke. “How’s my favorite Wayne Enterprises employee doing?”

“Oh, Mr. Stark.” Tim flushed with further embarrassment, but nobody seemed to realize that the billionaire was there. _That’s what it like when you’re not a Gothamite, I guess_. “Um, I’m fine.” _I only broke up with my fiancé last week and now I’m starting to think that Batman has a thing for me, but you know how it is for us R &D people_.

Tony looked down at the sketchbook Tim had in front of him; it was full of design sketches for costumes and small scale, hand-to-hand, weapons. “Should I be worried about competition from W.E. in the superhero department?”

“Oh! Oh no. This is my personal project, a comic book.” _Smooth, Drake, smooth._

Stark laughed as he sat down across from him. “I can see it now: Tim Drake, best selling comic book author. What field haven’t you conquered yet?”

_Relationships._ The thought made Tim feel a little numb. He had wanted so badly to make it work with Dick, because god did he love Dick, but he wasn’t trying as hard. And then everything happened with Batman, and how obsessive Dick had become, and Tim just couldn’t agree. He knew that there were some things that Batman was going to be able to do better than the GCPD, because he wasn’t as restricted. If he did a few tiny illegal things, did that make him as bad as…

He realized that he hadn’t responded to Stark. “Speaking of super heroes, how are the Avengers working with Batman?”

A crash came from behind the counter. Tim looked over and saw that it was the brand new barista. He had dropped a coffee cup and it looked like the hot coffee had gotten on his shirt on the way down. The other barista on duty, Jason, was already dabbing at it with paper towels before sending him off to maybe get a new shirt before cleaning the mess up off the floor.

Stark waits to answer his question until Tim looks back at him. “Batman usually stays here in Gotham. Sometimes he’ll come to our compound, but he hasn’t gone on any missions with any of the Avengers yet.” He plays with the pastry on his plate for a moment. “He seems like a decent guy.”

Tim wants to say that he’s pretty sure Batman’s more than “a decent guy.” He knows that it would sound crazy, but he’s sure that some nights, when there aren’t too many crazies running around, that Batman has made sure that he’s gotten home safe. After that night in the park, it made him even more sure; nobody else has ever said that Batman has just randomly talked to them. Sure, he talked to the people he rescued, and he was known to banter with villains, but not just normal people.

Tim was kind of saved that moment as the door to the coffee shop opened and in walked Bruce Wayne himself, dressed impeccably as always. Instead of going right into line, he spotted Tim, and must have recognized the back of Tony’s head, and sauntered over. “Stark! Here to try to snatch Tim again?” He walked behind him and put his hands on Tim’s shoulders. “I thought after the third time you would’ve given up.”

They all did a combination of smiling and/or laughing, but something caught the corner of Tim’s eye; he looked over to the counter and saw how, for just a moment, both the new barista and Jason were staring at Bruce, before seeming to shake it out.

\---

Terry plopped down on the bed; one of four pieces of furniture that people could actually sit on in the whole apartment and by far the comfiest. He groaned, rubbing his face in his hands. “How do you do it? How do you work then when you know them? I don’t think I can do it, even for one more day. Why can’t I just work at a garage or something?”

Jason scratched the back of his neck. Honestly, he could sympathize with wanting to work at anywhere but a coffee shop. “I think you get used to it after a while. Grin and bear it, you know?”

“Bruce could have told you that I was never good at that.” Terry flopped back on the bed, spreading out as much as possible. As Jason watched him, he couldn’t help but wonder why Terry referred to Bruce like that; in the past tense, that is.

Terry didn’t seem to notice anything strange as he sat up with a grin. “So when are we going out?”

Jason, begrudgingly, admitted that this kid might be growing on him already.


End file.
